Gaming Convention Sees Big Turnout

For a few hours, they can be anyone else.”I have a really great charm, so whenever there’s a nice gentleman there I can really tell him what I want him to do and I usually get my way,” said gamer, Lisa Rancourt.Sounds like every woman’s dream, but for this gamer it’s actually a survival tactic.”The basic goal of the game is not to die in the game.”She’s acting a part in one of more than a dozen games at the snow con game convention. An event that features role playing games where players actually become a character to compete. “In a video game it’s just an image on the screen that’s falling down. If somebody’s actually put an hour and a half, two, three, four hours into a character it’s a lot more personal for them,” said Swanville resident, Nikky Boyington.SnowCon gives people an entire weekend of just that. Players can spend hours on end around a board game, or slipping in and out of a character.”It’s great. It’s nice to have that kind of community.”And it’s growing.SnowCon attracted twice as many participants this year as it did when it began in 2008.It’s a sign that gaming is headed in a direction the event’s organizers, Gibran Graham and Monique Bouchard, always hoped it would. “We’re often segmented and we don’t get to spend a lot of time with other people and this is a wonderful time to get to spend time with friends. Social gaming as we see it is getting people sitting around the table, you’re looking at each other, you’re laughing, you’re seeing what’s happening on a table.” And even if they lose, players are at least guaranteed one thing.”One hundred percent fun.”Which they seem to be having even in the heat of battle.